Are There Small Business Grants Available?
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Anyone who has ever started a business or are thinking about starting a business knows that this type of venture can be quite costly. Which is why many entrepreneurs look for Small Business Grants to help them out. But are there really any free grant money available to small startup companies?
The answer is “Yes!” Grants for small business owners can be found, however, you have to be willing to put in the work to find them. For example, eDev offers an Individual Development Account grant. This grant is to assist either starting up or building upon micro businesses of to low-income individuals or households, which means that a single person who makes less than $21,660 many be able to get this type of small business grant help (two-person households can make as much as $29,140).
Another chance for small businesses to get a grant is through the USDA Rural Development. Here you can see a number of grants available for rural small businesses. For example, two types of grants are offered by the Rural Energy for America with one being for energy efficiency and the other the production of renewable energy.
And another small business grant offers up to 25% funding for for those businesses who come up with a way to to improve energy efficiency or process resulting in reduced energy consumption. For more information, visit www.rurdev.usda.gov/or/rbs.htm.
And finally, another terrific grant opportunity is from the Small Business Innovation Research grant program. This program is participated by all federal agencies and each agency will publish technical topics to fund. For instance, a Corvallis company has received two of these type of grant awards for their ability to research the possibility of converting grass straw into cellulosic ethanol. And the Phase I grants, which are $80,000 to $90,000, allow a company to research and analyze a concept.
But there are also Phase II grants. The amount of this type of business grant will sometimes reach the hundreds of thousands of dollars and will give a company the ability to construct prototypes. For more information, visit www.sbir.gov.
In the end it is important to remember that small business grants are available but do not come easy. You must be willing to put in some work to find them and get them.
